“The Gospel According to Paul”
(Wednesday Evening October 7th, 2009)
Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
O.S. A Famous Evangelist by the Name of Dwight L. Moody Once Said, “There is no word in the English language so little understood as the word ‘Gospel.’”
-> And Unfortunately, I Believe That Dwight L. Moody Was Exactly Right
-> In Fact, I Looked Up the Word “Gospel” in a Little Paperback Dictionary That I Have, and These are the Definitions That I Found
Definition # 1 = The Teachings of Jesus and the Apostles
Definition # 2 = Any of the First Four Books of the New Testament
Definition # 3 = Something Regarded as True and Implicitly Believed
-> Well, There’s My Proof
-> None of Those Definitions of the Word “Gospel” Comes Anywhere Close to Explaining What “The Gospel” Actually Is
-> And This is Tragic, Because “The Gospel” is Really the Central Theme of the Entire Bible
-> The Greek Word for “Gospel” is the Word “Euangelion”, and It Literally Means “The Good News”
-> Now, the Fact That We Have Some “Good News” Implies That There is Also Some “Bad News,” and the Bad News is This:
-> The Bad News is That, When Adam Sinned in the Garden of Eden, His Sin Infected the Entire Human Race
-> That’s Why the Apostle Paul Said This in Romans 5:12; He Said, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death
spread to all men, …”
-> You See, Just as an Entire Football Team is Penalized When One Man Jumps Off Sides, the Entire Human Race Has Been Affected AND INFECTED by Adam’s Sin
St = And the Bad News is That Each and Every One of Us Have Sinned and Have Fallen Short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23)
-> The Bible Tells Us in Psalms 51:5 That We Were Even Born in Sin, and Our Sin
Has Also Separated Us From God
-> In Fact, the Bible Says That the Fall of Man
Resulted in a Complete Wash Out
-> Romans 3:10 Says It This Way; It Says, “…' THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE”
-> It Was a Complete Wash Out; Every Man and Woman on the Face of This Earth Has Sinned, and Has Fallen Short of God’s Glory - That’s the Bad News
St = The Good News is That God Decided to Intervene, and the First Hint We Have of His Divine Plan Came Immediately After the Fall
-> It is Found in Genesis 3:15, and in This Verse, God Said to the Serpent,“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall
bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel”
-> That Verse is What Theologians Call “The Protoevangelium” or “The First Gospel”
-> It is the First Mention of “The Good News” That God Would Send His Son to This Earth to Die on the Cross for Our Sins, and That By His Death on the Cross He Would
Defeat the Devil and Reverse the Effects of the Fall
-> That is Where This Theme of the Bible, That We Call the Gospel, Began; t Was Developed Progressively Throughout the O.T. ; It Was Illustrated by the Sacrificial System
and by the Types and the Symbols of O.T.
-> Until Ultimately, God’s Plan Was Accomplished and Revealed in the New Testament by the Death, Burial and Physical Resurrection of Jesus Christ
-> This My Friends is “The Gospel”, and the Most Complete, and Yet, Concise Description We Have of It is Found in This Passage of Scripture Right Here
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
T.S. And So, With All of That in Mind, I Want You to See How the Apostle Paul Defines and Describes It; I Want You to See “The Gospel According to Paul”
I. Paul Emphasized the Message of the Gospel
vs 1 (Read)
-> In That Verse, Paul Stated His Purpose Which Was to Describe the Gospel
vs 3 (Read)
-> Now, That Little Phrase “as of first importance” Literally Means “Among the First Things” or We Might Say “In the First Place”
-> And Since We are in Chapter 15 of the Book of First Corinthians, We Know That Paul is Not Speaking Chronologically; He is Speaking Theologically
-> What He is Saying, in Essence, is This; He is Saying to the Corinthians,“I have covered several different issues in this epistle; I have dealt with the subject of carnality; I
have dealt with the subject of church discipline; I have dealt with the subject of marriage and sex; I have dealt with the subject of spiritual gifts; I have dealt with the
Subject of Christian liberty, BUT NONE OF THOSE SUBJECTS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS THIS SUBJECT RIGHT HERE”
-> In Other Words, the Gospel is Not the Only Message of the Church, BUT IT IS THE MAIN MESSAGE OF THE CHURCH
-> In Fact, One Thing That is Unique to the Church in Comparison to Every Other Organization and Institution in the World is the Fact That Our Mission Has Been
Determined by Our Message
-> Now, for Every Other Institution in the World, This is Just the Opposite
Q.n = Ace Hardware, for Example, Wants to Sell Hardware; So, What is Their Slogan?
ans = “Ace is the Place With the Helpful Hardware Man” (Mission Determines Message)
-> The Church is Just the Opposite, Because Our Message Determines Our Mission
-> Jesus Said That Our Mission is to Spread Our Message, Which is Called the Gospel
-> We are to Teach Others About the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
-> And We are to Tell Them How They Can Have Eternal Life by Simply Believing Our Message and Placing Their Faith and Trust in Him – the Lord Jesus
a. The Gospel Was so Important to Paul That He Compulsively Preached It 1 Cor 9:16 “…for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel”
b. The Gospel Was so Important to Paul That He Boldly Supported It Rom 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone
Who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek”
c. The Gospel Was so Important to Paul That He Adamantly Defended It
Gal 1:8 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”
d. And the Gospel Was so Important to Paul That He Redundantly Expressed It
1 Cor 2:2 “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”
-> I Believe That Means That Paul Kept Coming Back to This Message Regarding the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Until They Had It Nailed It Down
-> In Other Words, Paul Always Found a Way to Come Back to This Theme
-> At Times, He Was Ridiculed for Preaching the Gospel
-> The Aeropagites, for Example, Sneered at Paul When He Proclaimed That Jesus Christ Had Been Resurrected (Acts 17:32)
-> But Nevertheless, Paul Always Found a Way to Move the Conversation Back to the Sinfulness of Man, and the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
App: And This is Why I Believe That no Preacher Should Ever Allow Himself to Grow Tired of Proclaiming the Gospel
-> And I Don’t Believe That Any Christian Should Ever Grow Tired of Hearing It and Rejoicing Every Time That We Hear It Proclaimed
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ill: I Rejoiced, for Example, When I Heard Franklin Graham Being Interviewed by Larry King Right After Mel Gibson’s Film “The Passion of Christ” Had Been Released,
Because He Kept Finding a Way to Emphasize the Truths of the Gospel
II. Paul Explained the Meaning of the Gospel
vs 3-4 (Read)
-> Now, I Want You to Notice That He Did Not Mention Jesus’ Sinless Life and His Earthly Ministry, Because This is Not the Essence of the Gospel
-> He Begins Instead With…
1) The Vicarious Nature of His Death
-> And the Key Phrase in Verse 3 is the Phrase “for our sins”
-> For You See, There Was Nothing Unusual About the Fact That Jesus Died
-> Men Die Every Day, and if the Lord Tarries, Someday You Will Die and I Will Die
-> What is Unique About Jesus’ Death Was That His Death Was a Vicarious Death
-> The Word “for” That is Used Here Literally Means “In Behalf of” or “in Place of”
-> So, This Tells Us That Jesus Did Not Die on the Cross as an Example, or as a Martyr, But as a Substitute, and as Our Savior
-> In Other Words, He Carried Our Sins With Him to the Cross, and There He Took Upon Himself the Punishment That We Justly Deserved
-> That’s Why the Apostle Peter Said This 1 Peter 2:24 ; He Said, “and He Himself (Referring to Jesus Christ) bore our sins in His body on the cross, …”
-> And Paul Makes It a Point to Remind Us That This Had Been Prophesied in the O.T.
-> Isaiah 53:5, for Example, Says“But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, ...”
-> And in Isaiah 53:6, the Bible Says, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on
Him”
2) The Verifying Nature of His Burial
-> It is Interesting That Paul Went on to Mention His Burial, and He Did This for a Couple of Reasons
a. First, He Did It Because This Too Had Been Prophesied
-> Isaiah 53:9 Had Informed Us That “His grave (would be) assigned with wicked men, Yet He (would be) with a rich man in His death”
-> And That is Exactly What Happened
-> He Was Crucified Between Two Thieves
-> But Then, He Was Buried in the Tomb of a Rich Man by the Name of Joseph of Arimathea
-> So, This Was a Fulfillment of Prophecy
b. Second, He Did It Because It Verified the Fact That Jesus Had Died
-> Jesus’ Death Had Been Verified When the Roman Soldiers Saw no Need to Break His Legs, Which Was Also a Fulfillment of Prophecy (Ps 22:17)
-> His Death Was Also Verified by the Fact That One of the Soldiers Had Thrust a Spear Into His Heart, and Blood and Water Came Out (John 19:34)
-> And if There Had Been Any Sign of Life at All While Jesus’ Body Was Being Prepared for Burial, I am Sure This Would Have Been Noticed
-> But the Fact of the Matter is That Jesus Died
-> And This is Important Because There Have Been Some in History Who Have Attempted to Distort the Gospel by Denying Jesus’ Death
-> One Example of This is What is Known as “The Swoon Theory”
-> About Two Hundred Years Ago, a Group of Rationalists Began to Suggest That Jesus Did Not Actually Die on the Cross, But He Just Swooned (Elaborate)
-> There are People Today Who Actually Believe This, and Preachers Who Teach It
Ill: Every Time I Think About “The Swoon Theory,” I am Reminded of a Man Who Wrote a Letter to the Editor of a Religious Newspaper That Said This
“Dear Editor ,
Our Preacher said on Easter that Jesus just swooned on the cross, and that the disciples nursed him back to health. What do you think?
Sincerely,
Mr Jones”
-> The Editor Wrote Back, and I Love His Response; He Said,
“Dear Brother Jones
Take your Preacher outside and beat him with a cat of nine tails with 39 strokes. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through
His heart. Embalm Him. Wrap him up like a mummy. Put him in an airtight tomb for 72 hours,and you see what happens.
Sincerely,
the Editor”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pt = My Point, of Course, is That “The Swoon Theory” is Absolutely Ridiculous
-> Jesus Did in Fact Die, and He Was Buried in a Tomb
-> And the Empty Tomb is an Evidence of the Fact That He Was Physically Raised From the Dead
-> Which is One of the Main Points That Paul is Trying to Make Here
-> For You See, There Were Some in Corinth Who Were Distorting the Gospel by Suggesting That Jesus Had Not Physically Risen From the Grave
-> But Paul Says, in Essence, “No, That is a Distortion of the Gospel That is Not Acceptable!”
-> And He Points to the Empty Tomb and Says, in Essence, “Take a Look Inside. There is no Body There, Because His Resurrection Was a Physical Resurrection”
3) The Victorious Nature of His Resurrection
-> Now, This Third Part of the Gospel is the Most Important Part, Because Without It, the Other Two Parts Don’t Matter
-> It Does Not Matter if He Died, and It Does Not Matter if He Was Buried, if He Did Not, in Fact, Rise From the Grave
Q.n = How do I Know, for Example, That Jesus Did in Fact Die for My Sins?
Q.n = And How do I Know That God Accepted His Payment for My Redemption, which Was in the Form of His Very Own Blood?
Ans = The Answer is His Resurrection
-> In Romans 4:25, Paul Said, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification”
-> This Means That God Accepted the Check
-> And in Romans 1:4, Paul Said, “(He)…was declared the Son of God with power (Listen) by the resurrection from the dead…”
-> This Means That the Resurrection Was God’s Stamp of Approval Upon His Son, and Upon His Own Redemption Plan
-> Because Man’s Court Said, “He is a Criminal, Crucify Him”
-> But God’s Court Said,“This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am Well Pleased,
and He Proved It by Raising Him From the Dead”
-> By the Way, the Greek Here is Interesting, Because the Words “Died” and “Buried” are in the Aorist Tense, But the Word “Raised” is in the Perfect Tense Which
Means That the Results of His Resurrection are Still Abiding
-> In Other Words, We Serve a Risen Savior, and the Results of His Resurrection Have Been Established and are Unchanging
III. Paul Endorsed the Might of the Gospel
-> I Mentioned Romans 1:16 Earlier Which is Where Paul Said,“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek”
-> That Was Certainly an Endorsement on the Part of Paul of the Power of the Gospel to Bring Salvation to Any Man or Woman Who Believes and to Transform Lives
-> And We Find Some More of His Endorsements of the Power of the Gospel in Verses 1-2 and in Verse 7-9 of This Chapter as Well
-> To Begin With, Paul is Reminding These Christians in Corinth of the Fact
That the Gospel They Received From Him Brought Salvation and Peace and Stability
-> So, He is Saying, in Essence, “Why Would You Want to Lay It Aside? and What Makes You Think That Anyone Can Come Along and Improve on It?”
-> And, as He States in Verse 3, This Was a Message That Was “Delivered to Him”
-> In Other Words, the Apostle Paul Did Not Invent the Gospel; He Simply Delivered It; God Revealed It to Him; He Was Entrust With It, and He Delivered It Exactly as It
Was Revealed to Him
-> He Also Includes a Warning in Verse 2 That Suggests That Anyone Who Moves Outside the Parameters of the Gospel He Delivered to Them Will Reveal, by Doing so, the
Fact That They Have Never Truly Embraced It
-> Which Means That No One Can Call Himself or Herself a Christian if They Deny Any Part of the Gospel Including: His Death, His Burial and His Resurrection
-> So, in Essence, Paul is Saying to These Corinthians
-> You are the Proof
-> The Fact That Your Lives Have Been Transformed by the Power of the Gospel Proves That It is Effective
-> This is a Lot Like Jesus’ Illustration of the Wind in John 3:8, Because as Jesus Said, “No One Has Seen the Wind, But Everyone Has Seen the Effects of the Wind”
St = After Saying This, Paul Goes on to Mention Two People in This Passage Who Have Provided Us With Some Evidence of the Transforming Power of the Gospel
a. One of These is James the Half-Brother of Jesus
-> James Was Initially a Skeptic and an Unbeliever
-> In John 7:5, We are Told That…“…not even His brothers were believing in Him”
-> But After Jesus’ Resurrection, We are Told That All of the Disciples Were…“…devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus,
(Listen) and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14)
-> So, James Was Not a Believer Before the Resurrection, But He Became One Afterwards
b. Another of These is Paul the Apostle Himself
-> And What Makes Paul’s Conversion Unique is That He Went From Being the Greatest Persecutor of the Church to Being the Greatest Preacher of Christ After He
Encountered Jesus on the Road to Damascus
Pt = I Believe Paul is Doing More Here Than Providing Us With Overwhelming Evidence for the Reality of Jesus’ Resurrection, Which He Certainly Does
-> I Believe He is Also Reminding Us of the Power That the Gospel Has to Transform Lives, Just as It Had Transformed His Own
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ill: As I Studied This Passage, I Was Reminded of a Story About an Agnostic Sailor, Who on Shore Leave, Came Across a Barefooted Native Reading His Bible
-> He Saw This Barefooted Native Reading His Bible, and He Said to Him,“You don’t really believe all of that stuff about Jesus dying for your sins, being buried and rising
again on the third day, do you?”
-> The Native Said to Him, “Yes, I do believe this, and you should be glad that I do, because if I didn’t believe this (and he said as he patted his stomach), you would be in here by
now”
Invitation:
-> Well, in Closing, Let Me Just Point Out That One of the Greatest Hindrances to the Gospel is It’s Simplicity
-> Because Many People Have a Difficult Time Accepting That Something as Simple as Repenting of Our Sins, and Then, Believing in the Death, Burial and Resurrection of
Jesus and Placing Our Faith and Trust in Him Can Result in Eternal Salvation
-> And Yet, the Simplicity of the Gospel is Really Described Throughout Both the Old and New Testaments
Ex. In John 3:14, for Example, Jesus Said,"As Moses lifted up the serpent in wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up”
-> Jesus Was Pointing Back to Numbers 21 Where Moses Made a Bronze Serpent and Set It Up on a Pole, and Whoever Simply Looked at That Pole Was Healed
Ex. Before the Last Plague Came Upon Egypt, Moses Instructed All of the Israelites to Slaughter a Lamb and to Put Blood on the Doorposts of Their Houses
-> And He Assured Them That if They Would do This the Death Angel Would “Passover” Their House (Exodus 12:22)
-> That Was Really a Pretty Simply Thing to do, Wasn’t It?
Ex. When Naaman the Syrian Sought to be Healed of His Leprosy, He Went See Elisha the Prophet as He Had Been Encouraged to do
-> And Elisha Simply Said to Him “Go Dip in the Jordan River Seven Times and You Will be Healed”
Q.n = Do You Remember How It Was That Naaman Almost Didn’t Do It?
Q.n = But What Did Naaman’s Servants Say to Him?
Ans = It is Recorded in 2 Kings 5:13 Which Says “Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, ‘My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would
you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean'?’”
Q.n = Did You Catch That?
-> Naaman Almost Stumbled Over the Simplicity of It
-> And the Simplicity of It, Listen to Me - are You Listening?
-> The Simplicity of It Involved Humility and a Step of Faith
-> And That is the Same Thing God Requires of You if You Want to be Saved
a. First, You Must be Humble Enough to Admit That You Have Sinned and Have
Fallen Short of God’s Glory
b. Second, You Must Repent Which Means That
You Need to be Willing to Turn Away From Your Sin and to Begin Living for the Lord
c.
Third, You Must Place Your Faith and Trust in Jesus Christ Believing in His Death,
Burial and Physical Resurrection